RE: Switzerland: Another hit for phone privacy
Thomas Shaddack wrote: If anything, Twist (or how they changed the name after T-Mobile took over and screwed with things) (www.t-mobile.cz), Go (www.eurotel.cz), and Oskarta (Oscard, www.oskarmobil.cz) prepaid cards are quite common here. What Swisscom's EasyRoam pre-paid SIMs offered that no other pre-paid service that I am aware of offered, at least as of a year ago, was roaming in nearly every country that has GSM service. Most pre-paid SIMs are limited to roaming in just a few countries. In addition, EasyRoam was reasonably priced. Do the providers that you mention above offer global roaming on their pre-paids? Thanks, --Lucky
Re: Brinwear at Benetton.
Hadn't knew about mu metal. Thanks. :) Could be a nice thing for EM shielding, especially of things like transformers. Don't go jumping into the abyss without some knowledge. Right. Later I found mu-metal is just a fancy name for Permalloy which I worked with some time ago. (ObCredentials: I worked inside a double-walled Faraday cage in 1972-73 doing Josephson junction experiments with superconducting quantum-interferometric devices, aka SQUIDs. I did a lot of shaping and bending of mu metal. I also later worked near Faraday cages and had occasion to do more experiments in them.) The closest encounter I had with superconductors was when I was helping a friend with some measurements on some uranium-based ceramics. Was both brief and nice, and I lost fear of liquid nitrogen there. Besides, EU plans to embed RF tags into paper money. Various lengths of metallic conductors are already inside various banknotes. This is NOT the same technology as RFID. I don't disagree about it being a concern, and an area for study and experiment, but be careful not to leap to conclusions about banknotes being a location finder. I am VERY aware about the current metal strip. I am not worried about them at all. I am worried about the embedding of REAL RFID tags. The metal strip then could serve dual purpose, as an anticounterfeit device itself, and as the tag antenna. The banknotes could then carry their own history. The only consolation is that it will get cracked within few months at most. See here: http://educate-yourself.org/cn/BraveNewEuro7jan02.shtml http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20011219S0016 Jamming is grossly less efficient than detection. If you want an explanation, let me know and I'll spend 10 minutes writing a small piece on it. But first, think deeply about why this is so. Think especially about recovering signals from noise. Had my brush, though only theoretical, with integrating repeating signals back at school, when I was learning how to interpret NMR spectrums and how they work. (Good old times, it feels like yesterday.) Sorry, hadn't specified I am not talking about RFID tags anymore; was thinking about at least partially alleviating/sidestepping the problems with shielding of standard desktop computers. But will be definitely interested in the minilecture.
Switzerland: Another hit for phone privacy
Summary: Members of al-Qaeda were using prepaid cellphone accounts purchased in Switzerland. Swiss goons figured it out, and now Switzerland wants to register buyers of prepaid cards. My note: It will hurt only the low-grade people. Anybody with a brain, being a de-facto criminal or only a de-jure one, will find some of the ridiculously easy ways to acquire one without giving out a name, or with fake identity. The only difference will be an anonymous surcharge, if you will know whom to ask. Another feel-good, grossly ineffective measure. If it wouldn't be so disgusting, I'd laugh. And the cards will be prone to be smuggled. Even if the Authorities would manage to clamp down on the physical movements of goods (if they can't stop tons of easy-to-smell drugs, what success is expected with thumbprint-sized plastic cards with tiny chips), it is possible to crack out the Ki (secret key number) from the SIM card, then send it away by an encrypted mail and/or steganographed into a picture, and use it to clone a new card in the place it is about to be used. With simple software for changing IMEI, a phone that allows it (older Nokias typically should), and a couple of Ki numbers, one phone and one card and one laptop can offer enough of wireless identities. If anything, Twist (or how they changed the name after T-Mobile took over and screwed with things) (www.t-mobile.cz), Go (www.eurotel.cz), and Oskarta (Oscard, www.oskarmobil.cz) prepaid cards are quite common here. (Warning: Oskar tends to not use old COMP128, so the method of cloning of their cards is unknown yet. They also AFAIK don't have good roaming, T-Mobile is rumoured to be better. OTOH, Oskar is cheaper. OTTH, they tend to have weird coverage.) Wondering if any changes of this are planned to happen here. I am sure Standa Gross (our Minister of Internal Affairs) and his Grosstapo thugs would have multiple orgasms if they would get this. (And what are we about to expect when we'll finally join EU, and European version of FBI (EBI) will get formed and starts pressing through EU-wide regulations (as it's already happening, see www.statewatch.org, or details about ENFOPOL, reportedly established with the guidance of FBI, http://www.heise.de/tp/english/special/enfo/default.html )). Links (Google News keywords: pre-paid mobile swiss): http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=105sid=1689727 http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNewsstoryID=2369135 http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/59/29660.html Quote: It's an American habit, to immediately make new laws the moment something bad happens. (Mark Pieth, professor of law and criminology, Basel University)
Re: Brinwear at Benetton.
At 4:24 AM -0800 on 3/12/03, alan wrote: Open up a place to clean your clothes of all those little RFID tags Oxpecker.com seems to be for sale, for a price... :-) Cheers, RAH -- - R. A. Hettinga mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation http://www.ibuc.com/ 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA ... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience. -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
Re: Claim: Quietness of computers will win out over TEMPEST surveillance
At 3:34 PM -0800 3/12/03, Tim May wrote: Truly sensitive communications may be best done on laptops, even laptops in metal mesh bags. (Either with one's head poked into the bag, or a bag big enough to enclose the user and laptop, etc.) You probably want to use a fiber optics cable for the link to the outside of the bag. Assuming that it is entirely non-conductive (fiber + the covering), it will not tend to act as an antenna for the RF from your laptop. Cheers - Bill - Bill Frantz | Due process for all| Periwinkle -- Consulting (408)356-8506 | used to be the | 16345 Englewood Ave. [EMAIL PROTECTED] | American way. | Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA
Re: Brinwear at Benetton.
RFID technology for libraries ... http://www.demco.com/CGI-BIN/LANSAWEB?PROCFUN+LWDCWEB+LWDC025+PRD+ENG+FUNCPARMS+ZZWSESSID(A0200):29762251880047332521+ZZWNAVPAG(A0100):PROMO+DATESEQ(A0140):31210321918+FC_AZZWHDRCMP:DEMCO_HEADER+FC_AZZWNEWZON:ADM+FC_AZZWNAVPAG:PRODUCT+FC_AZZWNEWHDR:DEMCO_HEADER+FC_AZZWCATCDE:+FC_AW_KEYMSCD:+FC_SW_PRDBBID:7483 So the man can now know what books you taking on the flight (Hopefully not the flight training manual for the aircraft). -- Neil Johnson http://www.njohnsn.com PGP key available on request.
Re: CDR: Re: Orwell's Victory goods come home
On Wed, 12 Mar 2003, gabriel rosenkoetter wrote: On Tue, Mar 11, 2003 at 08:54:13PM -0600, J.A. Terranson wrote: WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The cafeteria menus in the three House office buildings changed the name of french fries to freedom fries, in a culinary rebuke of France stemming from anger over the country's refusal to support the U.S. position on Iraq. Ditto for french toast, which will be known as freedom toast. ::sigh:: So, my two thoughts: 1. Yeah, the French will be really insulted by our removing their name from a Belgian dish. Oh yeah. They're quakin'. 2. We're trying to out-petty the French? The French are the pettiest fuckers you ever will meet![1] They still want the national dateline moved to Paris! They have a government bureaucracy devoted to keeping foreign words out of common usage in Proper French! C'mon... [1] Nothing personal against French subscribers. I'm sure at least 30% of you are mostly reasonable people. More than that and you're beating out the US subscribers. Did you read the Subject? -- ORWELL -- You know, 1984? Victory Gin? Sheesh... -- Yours, J.A. Terranson [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Brinwear at Benetton.
On Wednesday 12 March 2003 06:24 am, alan wrote: It sounds like there is an opertunity here for the right person. Open up a place to clean your clothes of all those little RFID tags and other buglets people are so interested in attaching to any object (nailed down or not). Gives new meaning to those Hane's T-shirt commericals starring Jackie Chan and Michael Jordan during the Superbowl. They were advertising their Tagless T-shirts. I see an upsurge in handmade clothing coming too. (of course that will have to be followed by homemade cloth, etc.) -- Neil Johnson http://www.njohnsn.com PGP key available on request.
Re: Orwell's Victory goods come home
J.A. Terranson wrote: http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/03/11/sprj.irq.fries/index.html WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The cafeteria menus in the three House office buildings changed the name of french fries to freedom fries, in a culinary rebuke of France stemming from anger over the country's refusal to support the U.S. position on Iraq. Ditto for french toast, which will be known as freedom toast. - could actually be subversive - the French are fighting for freedom from 'merkin bullying and attempts at world domination, as much as anything else...
Claim: Quietness of computers will win out over TEMPEST surveillance
On Wednesday, March 12, 2003, at 02:40 PM, Thomas Shaddack wrote: The closest encounter I had with superconductors was when I was helping a friend with some measurements on some uranium-based ceramics. Was both brief and nice, and I lost fear of liquid nitrogen there. Rational fear of LN is a good thing, though. Minor splashes aren't bad, but enough can cause serious burns. I also worked with uranium in ceramics, though they were not uranium-based (though sometimes we thought they were!). Jamming is grossly less efficient than detection. If you want an explanation, let me know and I'll spend 10 minutes writing a small piece on it. But first, think deeply about why this is so. Think especially about recovering signals from noise. Had my brush, though only theoretical, with integrating repeating signals back at school, when I was learning how to interpret NMR spectrums and how they work. (Good old times, it feels like yesterday.) Sorry, hadn't specified I am not talking about RFID tags anymore; was thinking about at least partially alleviating/sidestepping the problems with shielding of standard desktop computers. But will be definitely interested in the minilecture. Sounds like you already have the gist. There are many good ways to pull weak signals out of noise, either by direct integration over time or by chopper techniques (e.g., only looking in narrow time intervals, via gated integrators and boxcar averagers). And if the RF ID tag is sending out a signal over a couple of different frequencies, using some pseudorandom sequence for the frequency-hopping, then the noise gain can be enormous. That is, an attacker trying to jam a spread-spectrum (Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum, DSSS, typically) signal will have to match and greatly exceed the frequences and times. Even better, pulse systems which send out ultrawideband signals at various coded time points (so-called Gold codes, or Kosami codes, for example) are even more difficult to jam. You mention that your point was about jamming intercepts from insufficiently-shielded computers, a la TEMPEST, which, by the way, is not an acronym (To Ensure More Private Eavesdropping-Safe Telecommunications--NOT). This is similar to trying to hide phone bugs by running a background noise source, like a shower or a television set. But as with those attempts, a skilled eavesdropper can strip out nonrandom noise sources like music or television, thus improving S/N ratios. Or the quasi-random noise of a shower just adds to the baseline of noise already present. (And multiple detectors can help in various ways, much the way noise-cancellation headphones work...off the shelf consumer technology, so imagine what the spooks have.) More dB of eavesdropping attenuation is gotten by reducing the signal than by increasing the noise, short of the equivalent of jet engines. Better to whisper than to speak normally but turn on cover noise sources elsewhere in a room. Measuring leakage at a distance of a few centimeters is easy to do. And if a leakage signal is very, very small at a few centimeters, the usual inverse-square falloff will make it truly tiny at 100 meters or so. (Where a van might be parked outside one's flat, for example.) I'm not saying RF emissions are not an issue. Much was written about this some years ago, even here on this list, when Van Eyck Radiation (just the RF) was being studied. Ross Anderson at Cambridge and his group have been doing lots of work on this. Truly sensitive communications may be best done on laptops, even laptops in metal mesh bags. (Either with one's head poked into the bag, or a bag big enough to enclose the user and laptop, etc.) There are also heads-up LCD displays now costing less than $600, which can be used with handheld computers and the like. Besides (likely, but don't quote me) low emissions from the start, a mesh hood would be very easy to construct, thus knocking probably another 30 dB off the already low emissions. Note that the inverse-square law falloff and the vast number of communications is probably why the Osama Bin Laden deputy, Sheik Mohammed, wasn't caught because of RF emissions from his laptop, but instead because of an informant (as I understand things). I would strongly bet on quietness of computers winning out over increased RF detection capabilities. (Needless to say, detection goes as the square of the antenna size, so even really large antennas don't have that many dB of extra capture capability, compared to quietness at the source.) --Tim May The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant. --John Stuart Mill
Re: Switzerland: Another hit for phone privacy
On Thu, Mar 13, at 12:41AM, Lucky Green wrote: | What Swisscom's EasyRoam pre-paid SIMs offered that no other pre-paid | service that I am aware of offered, at least as of a year ago, was | roaming in nearly every country that has GSM service. Most pre-paid SIMs | are limited to roaming in just a few countries. In addition, EasyRoam | was reasonably priced. Do the providers that you mention above offer | global roaming on their pre-paids? Swisscom's prepaid cell phone service does not allow one to make calls from outside Switzerland. Receive calls, yes, make them, no. The issue has become murky along the way. I have had two swiss pre-paid cell phones and even while still in the Geneva area, if you're too close to France (very easy to do here) you lose the ability to make calls because you get caught up in a french network. Something is not being reported or something is being misreported on this one.
Re: FC: TradeSports.com lets you bet on Saddam's survivability
At 01:43 AM 03/12/2003 -0500, Declan McCullagh forward to his Politech list: Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 13:28:57 -0800 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: Steve Schear [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Buy a contract on Saddam's life At TradeSports you can buy futures contracts for all sorts of sports, plus Saddam's survivability http://www.tradesports.com/jsp/intrade/contractSearch/xml/ContractSearch.jsp steve So do we classify this article as Information Futures or as Assassination Politics? :-)
content control mafia is at it again
It's this time of the year again, apparently. http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030312-120912-6894r Analysis: Germany's copyright levy By Sam Vaknin UPI Senior Business Correspondent From the Business Economics Desk Published 3/12/2003 12:30 PM View printer-friendly version SKOPJE, Macedonia, March 12 (UPI) -- Based on the recommendation of its patent office and following fierce lobbying by VG Wort, an association of German composers, authors and publishers, Germany is poised to enforce a 3-year-old law and impose a copyright levy of $13 plus 16 percent in value added tax per new computer sold in the country. The money will be used to reimburse copyright holders -- artists, performers, recording companies, publishers and movie studios -- for unauthorized copying thought to weigh adversely on sales. This is the non-binding outcome of a one-year mediation effort by the patent office between VG Wort, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Germany's largest computer manufacturer and other makers. VG Wort initially sought a levy of $33 per unit sold. But Fujitsu and the German Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media, known as Bitkom -- including Microsoft, IBM, Alcatel, Nokia, Siemens and 1,300 other member firms -- intend to challenge even the more modest fee in court. They claim that it will add close to $80 million to the cost of purchasing computers without conferring real benefits on the levy's intended beneficiaries. They made similar assertions in a letter they recently dispatched to the European Commission. The problems of peer-to-peer file sharing, file swapping, the cracking and hacking of software, music and, lately, even e-books, are serious. Bundesverband Phono, Germany's recording industry trade association, reported that music sales plunged for the fifth consecutive year -- this time, more than 11 percent. According to figures offered by the admittedly biased group, 55 percent of the 486 million blank CDs sold in Germany last year -- about 267 million -- were used for illicit purposes. For every legal music CD sold, there are 1.7 illegal ones. Efforts by the industries affected are under way to extend the levy to computer peripherals and, where not yet implemented, photocopying machines. Similar charges are applied already by many European countries to other types of equipment: tape recorders, photocopiers, video-cassettes and scanners, for instance. Blank magnetic media, especially recordable CDs, are -- or have been -- taxed in more than 40 countries, including Canada and the United States. Nor is Germany alone in this attempt to ameliorate the pernicious effects of piracy by taxing the hardware used to effect it. The European Union's Directive on the Harmonization of Certain Aspects of Copyright and Related Rights in the Information Society, passed in 2001, is strenuous, though not prescriptive. It demands that member states ensure fair compensation to copyright holders for copies made by means of digital equipment -- but fails to specify or proscribe how. It has been incorporated into local law only by Greece and Denmark hitherto. In Austria, Literar-Mechana, the copyright fees collection agency, negotiated with hardware manufacturers and importers the introduction of a levy on personal computers and printers. The Swiss are pushing through an amendment to the copyright law to collect a levy on PCs sold within their territory. The Belgian, Finnish, Spanish and French authorities are still debating the issue. So are Luxembourg and Norway. According to Wired, the Canadian Private Copying Collective, the music industry trade group, has proposed new levies to be applied to any device that can store music, such as removable hard drives, recordable DVDs, Compact Flash memory cards and MP3 players. Precedent is hardly encouraging. The aforementioned Canadian collective has yet to distribute to its members even one tax dollar of the tens of millions it inexplicably hoards. In Greece, a 2 percent levy on all manner of computer equipment provoked a hail of legal challenges, still to be sorted out in the courts. The amounts collected hardly cover the government's legal expenses hitherto. The United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden and Denmark are against the levy, claiming, correctly, that hardware is used for purposes other than pilfering intellectual property digitally. The Italians, Portuguese and Dutch haven't even considered the option. Hardware manufacturers are livid. In a buyers' market, their razor-thin profit margins on the commoditized goods they are peddling are bound to be erased by a copyright levy. The European Information and Communications Trade Association implausibly threatens to pass on such extra costs to consumers and recommends to stick to technological means of prevention, collectively known as digital rights management systems, or to novel CD copy protection measures. Moreover, the
Re: Brinwear at Benetton.
On Wednesday 12 March 2003 09:13 pm, Neil Johnson wrote: RFID technology for libraries ... http://www.demco.com/CGI-BIN/LANSAWEB?PROCFUN+LWDCWEB+LWDC025+PRD+ENG+FUNCP ARMS+ZZWSESSID(A0200):29762251880047332521+ZZWNAVPAG(A0100):PROMO+DATESEQ(A0 140):31210321918+FC_AZZWHDRCMP:DEMCO_HEADER+FC_AZZWNEWZON:ADM+FC_AZZWNAVPAG: PRODUCT+FC_AZZWNEWHDR:DEMCO_HEADER+FC_AZZWCATCDE:+FC_AW_KEYMSCD:+FC_SW_PRDBB ID:7483 So the man can now know what books you taking on the flight (Hopefully not the flight training manual for the aircraft). Oh hell, should have known better about the URL. Goto http://www.demco.com and search for RFID. Sorry. -- Neil Johnson http://www.njohnsn.com PGP key available on request.
peppercoin
Anyone have any opinions on Peppercoin, a micropayment system? I don't recall it being discussed here before. http://www.peppercoin.com/peppercoin_is.html -- Harmon Seaver CyberShamanix http://www.cybershamanix.com
RE: Brinwear at Benetton.
One thing I worry about is a limited access tag - one which only responds when tickled with the right stimulus. Such a tag could be undetectable to the taggee. A nonlinear junction detector could be a reliable way to find it. You won't find a tag hidden in an electronics device (NLJDs are handy to find semiconductor junctions in general, so you'd get too many false positives.) You could find it reliably in eg. a t-shirt or a banknote, where there is no electronics supposed to be. Besides, if such technology will be popular enough, the readers will have to be widely available on the open market. If there will be a code specific for each class of the readers, it will be possible to eavesdrop it in the vicinity of the given reader. Pondering the banknotes. The muggers will never have to follow their victim from a bankomat through a dark park anymore. They will just wait there, remotely scanning the wallets of potential victims, picking the ones stupid enough to carry more money without using a wire-mesh purse. The cops could use it too, for picking the persons with suspicious amount of cash - see the seizure of cash under asset forfeiture laws, dubbed War on Cash. Just musing...
Re: Brinwear at Benetton.
On Thu, 13 Mar 2003, Adam Shostack wrote: On Thu, Mar 13, 2003 at 10:22:14AM -0500, Trei, Peter wrote: The other motivator is liability. If I build the mugger's little helper, a PDA attachement that scans for real prada bags, then perhaps the RFID tag will be removed at the counter after the first lawsuit. I think economics would be a better argument. If the manufacturer can recycle the tags for inventory control they can save a lot of money. 10 cents per item isn't much, but at millions of items it becomes worth while. Having the tag removed at the counter so they can be sent back to the manufacturer along with returns and defects saves money, and that argument carries more weight to someone trying to make a profit than anything else. Patience, persistence, truth, Dr. mike
Re: Claim: Quietness of computers will win out over TEMPEST surveillance
Rational fear of LN is a good thing, though. Minor splashes aren't bad, but enough can cause serious burns. You talk about what I call respect. :) I also worked with uranium in ceramics, though they were not uranium-based (though sometimes we thought they were!). Black fragile thing looking like fine brick, weakly radioactive. Heavy fermion superconductor. Memories... :) Sounds like you already have the gist. There are many good ways to pull weak signals out of noise, either by direct integration over time or by chopper techniques (e.g., only looking in narrow time intervals, via gated integrators and boxcar averagers). I briefly seen such jamming generator, they are a real commercial product. I think it was sensing the computer's emissions, and altering the noise signal to counteract it. It surely wasn't a simple device. And if the RF ID tag is sending out a signal over a couple of different frequencies, using some pseudorandom sequence for the frequency-hopping, then the noise gain can be enormous. That is, an attacker trying to jam a spread-spectrum (Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum, DSSS, typically) signal will have to match and greatly exceed the frequences and times. True. How difficult is to detect the PRESENCE of such DSSS signal? Even better, pulse systems which send out ultrawideband signals at various coded time points (so-called Gold codes, or Kosami codes, for example) are even more difficult to jam. Aren't they an annoying source of noise for everything non-spread-spectrum around? already present. (And multiple detectors can help in various ways, much the way noise-cancellation headphones work...off the shelf consumer technology, so imagine what the spooks have.) I think I seen this approach even for receiving of weak TV signals. Measuring leakage at a distance of a few centimeters is easy to do. How? Is there any cheap'n'easy way the interested part of the general public (thinking about people like on this List, not the Joe Sixpack cannon-fodder) could use? (Namely, is there some way how the detector device could be built by someone with not-too-many experiences with high frequencies?) And if a leakage signal is very, very small at a few centimeters, the usual inverse-square falloff will make it truly tiny at 100 meters or so. (Where a van might be parked outside one's flat, for example.) Beware of the signals that spread along the power lines. Truly sensitive communications may be best done on laptops, even laptops in metal mesh bags. (Either with one's head poked into the bag, or a bag big enough to enclose the user and laptop, etc.) ...or a big-enough well-grounded metal cabinet. Could additionally have the advantage of small, enclosed space that's easier to secure and audit than a typical room full of junk and books. Heard LCD screens radiate surprisingly strongly. See at http://www.eskimo.com/~joelm/tempestmisc.html I would strongly bet on quietness of computers winning out over increased RF detection capabilities. (Needless to say, detection goes as the square of the antenna size, so even really large antennas don't have that many dB of extra capture capability, compared to quietness at the source.) RF is bitch. Spare tight all-metal enclosures, properly shielding a computer system is quite nontrivial. :( A simple RF radiation leakage detector would be a beneficial thing to have. If possible, it should be something a slight-above-average sysadmin would be able to handle. Hope you're right...
Re: FC: TradeSports.com lets you bet on Saddam's survivability
At 01:59 AM 3/13/2003 -0800, Bill Stewart wrote: At 01:43 AM 03/12/2003 -0500, Declan McCullagh forward to his Politech list: Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 13:28:57 -0800 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: Steve Schear [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Buy a contract on Saddam's life At TradeSports you can buy futures contracts for all sorts of sports, plus Saddam's survivability http://www.tradesports.com/jsp/intrade/contractSearch/xml/ContractSearch.jsp steve So do we classify this article as Information Futures or as Assassination Politics? :-) Information futures, to be sure since you are free to wager on either side. steve
RE: Unauthorized Journalists to be shot at
Sunder[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/29750.html Airstrike! The Pentagon simplifies media relations By John Lettice Posted: 13/03/2003 at 17:10 GMT Should war in the Gulf commence, the Pentagon proposes to take radical new steps in media relations - 'unauthorised' journalists will be shot at. Speaking on The Sunday Show on Ireland's RTE1 last sunday veteran war reporter Kate Adie said she had been warned by a senior Pentagon official that uplinks, i.e. TV broadcasts or satellite phones, that are detected by US aircraft are likely to be fired on. ok. A loitering US plane equipped with HARMs (High explosive Anti Radiation Missiles) detects a satellite uplink from within or just our side of the front line (or even out front). It lacks the correct IFF codes. Is it: 1. An journalist doing what he was specifically told not to do? 2. An Iraqi or Al-Queda forward fire director, calling in coordinates for a VX loaded missile attack on your side. If you wait, and it's a bad guy, the signal will be lost, and you can't use your missiles. The attack will take place, and your friends will die. Make a decision. Now. Peter Trei
Unauthorized Journalists to be shot at
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/29750.html Airstrike! The Pentagon simplifies media relations By John Lettice Posted: 13/03/2003 at 17:10 GMT Should war in the Gulf commence, the Pentagon proposes to take radical new steps in media relations - 'unauthorised' journalists will be shot at. Speaking on The Sunday Show on Ireland's RTE1 last sunday veteran war reporter Kate Adie said she had been warned by a senior Pentagon official that uplinks, i.e. TV broadcasts or satellite phones, that are detected by US aircraft are likely to be fired on. SNIP Hey, we're fighting for freedom after all, the freedom to suppress the truth... So how soon before France is on the Axis of Evil? :) --Kaos-Keraunos-Kybernetos--- + ^ + :NSA got $20Bil/year |Passwords are like underwear. You don't /|\ \|/ :and didn't stop 9-11|share them, you don't hang them on your/\|/\ --*--:Instead of rewarding|monitor, or under your keyboard, you \/|\/ /|\ :their failures, we |don't email them, or put them on a web \|/ + v + :should get refunds! |site, and you must change them very often. [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.sunder.net
Re: Brinwear at Benetton.
04:24 AM 3/12/03 -0800, alan wrote: It sounds like there is an opertunity here for the right person. Open up a place to clean your clothes of all those little RFID tags and other buglets people are so interested in attaching to any object (nailed down or not). Our Premium service includes checking for isotopic tracers (see Stasi), magnetic/plastic layered (see smokeless powder) tags, and UV fluorescent spy tracing powders (see http://www.covertcomic.com/CCSchool.htm spy dust). --Cypherpunk Laundry Division
RE: Unauthorized Journalists to be shot at
At 02:04 PM 3/13/03 -0500, Trei, Peter wrote: Is it: 1. An journalist doing what he was specifically told not to do? 2. An Iraqi or Al-Queda forward fire director, calling in coordinates for a VX loaded missile attack on your side. I'd think that the troops would explain this to the reporters tagging along as they confiscate all their transmitters before an op. I simply wouldn't trust the reporters, even though they're toast too if someone mis-IFFs. Its a lot more serious than not shutting off your cell phone on a plane. Besides, I doubt the reporters have Iraq's FCC's clearance to use those frequencies there, until we extend the Little Powell's authority to that domain. :-)
RE: Unauthorized Journalists to be shot at
On Thu, 13 Mar 2003, Trei, Peter wrote: 1. An journalist doing what he was specifically told not to do? Most probably. Those pesky civilians. No backbone, no way to gag them by extreme sanctioning after perfunctory tribunal. 2. An Iraqi or Al-Queda forward fire director, calling in coordinates for a VX loaded missile attack on your side. They don't have anything stronger than dirty sarin or crappy lost. Tipping bad SCUD clones. If you wait, and it's a bad guy, the signal will be lost, and you can't use your missiles. The attack will take place, and your friends will die. All they want is to blow up enough journalists to deter them from reporting from hot areas thus acting as a leak thus acting as bad PR (Merkins don't do shredded meat by FAE, minimally invasive peachy-clean strategical surgery strictly). Make a decision. Nuke Washinton D.C.? Done. Now. That one was easy.
war criminals, all of em...
On Thu, Mar 13, 2003 at 11:22:09AM -0800, Eric Cordian wrote: Sunder writes: Should war in the Gulf commence, the Pentagon proposes to take radical new steps in media relations - 'unauthorised' journalists will be shot at. Speaking on The Sunday Show on Ireland's RTE1 last sunday veteran war reporter Kate Adie said she had been warned by a senior Pentagon official that uplinks, i.e. TV broadcasts or satellite phones, that are detected by US aircraft are likely to be fired on. This is nothing new. Radio and TV stations and other unauthorized sources of information are always first on the target list whenever the US starts a war. But its still a violation of the geneva conventions to kill civilians, lets not forget. Just like in Serbia... http://www.balkanpeace.org/lan/lan03.shtml Our government is just full of war criminals. Thus their refusal to be in the ICC founding in the Hague this week. I think the Pentagon spokeshomo put it this way. Propaganda outlets ARE military targets. Propaganda being anything not released by the Pentagon, of course. of course. Have you seen this lovely new media room in Qatar that Hollywood is building as a set for Iraq war briefings? In front of the stage, two 70-inch projection screens and five 50-inch plasma screens will flash maps, graphics and crystal-clear video images of war-zone action. In the background will hang a soft-focus elongated map of the world, as if to imply that the entire globe is united behind the United States. I like to achieve a level of detail that makes it difficult to distinguish a set from reality, Mr. Allison recently told the Times Union newspaper in Albany, N.Y. http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/ArticleNews/gtnews/TGAM/20030312/UTVTV M i hadn't heard about that. thanks. makes the bile rise in my throat. -- michael cardenas | lead software engineer, lindows.com hyperpoem.net | GNU/Linux software developer people.debian.org/~mbc | encrypted email preferred The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there. - Yasutani Roshi [demime 0.97c removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature]
Re: Unauthorized Journalists to be shot at
At 11:54 AM 3/13/03 -0500, Sunder wrote: Hey, we're fighting for freedom after all, the freedom to suppress the truth... So how soon before France is on the Axis of Evil? :) Well, if they're giving info to Mr. Hussein their embassy there could be NIMA'd, as in oops, we hit the Chinese consulate in Yugoslavia, but it was a mapping error. Taking out Paris would probably require more explanation. --- Would you like some Jewish Fries with that, Congressman. Moran?
Re: Brinwear at Benetton.
On Thu, Mar 13, 2003 at 11:57:27AM -0500, Tyler Durden wrote: | If I build the mugger's little | helper, a PDA attachement that scans for real prada bags, then perhaps | the RFID tag will be removed at the counter after the first lawsuit. | | Nice! Possibly, it might not even be necessary for the Little Helper to | read the tag, only detect its presence. Counterfeit bags probably won't | have the tag, and if they do (and the copies are good enough), the mugger | won't care. We designed the Pickpocket's pal to detect large amounts of currency this way. It just helps you size up your victim, or at least size up their wad of cash. (There were some complications, because the tags do try not to chat at the same time, but hey, how well designed do you think a 10c item is?) Adam -- It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once. -Hume
Re: Brinwear at Benetton.
1972-73 doing Josephson junction experiments with superconducting quantum-interferometric devices, aka SQUIDs Isn't that a little early for SQUIDs? -TD _ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963
The darkest side of ID theft
(apologies if this has been discussed already) The darkest side of ID theft - When impostors are arrested, victims get criminal records... Malcolm Byrd was home with his two children on a Saturday night when a knock came at the door. Three Rock County, Wis., sheriffs officers were there with a warrant for Byrds arrest. Cocaine possession, with intent to distribute, it said. Byrd tried to tell them that they had the wrong man, that it was a case of mistaken identity, that he was a victim of identity theft. But they wouldnt listen. Instead they put him in handcuffs and drove him away. Again. http://www.msnbc.com/news/877978.asp
Re: Switzerland: Another hit for phone privacy
Anybody with a brain, being a de-facto criminal or only a de-jure one, will find some of the ridiculously easy ways to acquire one without giving out a name, ... Well, what they should do is obvious. Post a big sign at the point of sale saying Use of phone cards for terrorist activities is illegal and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. -TD From: Thomas Shaddack [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: cypherpunks [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Switzerland: Another hit for phone privacy Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2003 03:06:58 +0100 (CET) Summary: Members of al-Qaeda were using prepaid cellphone accounts purchased in Switzerland. Swiss goons figured it out, and now Switzerland wants to register buyers of prepaid cards. My note: It will hurt only the low-grade people. Anybody with a brain, being a de-facto criminal or only a de-jure one, will find some of the ridiculously easy ways to acquire one without giving out a name, or with fake identity. The only difference will be an anonymous surcharge, if you will know whom to ask. Another feel-good, grossly ineffective measure. If it wouldn't be so disgusting, I'd laugh. And the cards will be prone to be smuggled. Even if the Authorities would manage to clamp down on the physical movements of goods (if they can't stop tons of easy-to-smell drugs, what success is expected with thumbprint-sized plastic cards with tiny chips), it is possible to crack out the Ki (secret key number) from the SIM card, then send it away by an encrypted mail and/or steganographed into a picture, and use it to clone a new card in the place it is about to be used. With simple software for changing IMEI, a phone that allows it (older Nokias typically should), and a couple of Ki numbers, one phone and one card and one laptop can offer enough of wireless identities. If anything, Twist (or how they changed the name after T-Mobile took over and screwed with things) (www.t-mobile.cz), Go (www.eurotel.cz), and Oskarta (Oscard, www.oskarmobil.cz) prepaid cards are quite common here. (Warning: Oskar tends to not use old COMP128, so the method of cloning of their cards is unknown yet. They also AFAIK don't have good roaming, T-Mobile is rumoured to be better. OTOH, Oskar is cheaper. OTTH, they tend to have weird coverage.) Wondering if any changes of this are planned to happen here. I am sure Standa Gross (our Minister of Internal Affairs) and his Grosstapo thugs would have multiple orgasms if they would get this. (And what are we about to expect when we'll finally join EU, and European version of FBI (EBI) will get formed and starts pressing through EU-wide regulations (as it's already happening, see www.statewatch.org, or details about ENFOPOL, reportedly established with the guidance of FBI, http://www.heise.de/tp/english/special/enfo/default.html )). Links (Google News keywords: pre-paid mobile swiss): http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=105sid=1689727 http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNewsstoryID=2369135 http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/59/29660.html Quote: It's an American habit, to immediately make new laws the moment something bad happens. (Mark Pieth, professor of law and criminology, Basel University) _ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
